Kapil Sibal may get RS nomination from state

Bhopal: Former Union minister for law and justice Kapil Sibal or former minister for rural development Jairam Ramesh could go to Rajya Sabha on the Congress seat from Madhya Pradesh. Sources in the state Congress said that AICC wants its leaders, who are known for their past performance in Parliament to get back into the House. In June, two vacancies in the Upper House open up for the Congress party from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.Sources said it is likely that Kapil Sibal will go from Madhya Pradesh and Ramesh from Chhattisgarh or vice versa.
Sitting Rajya Sabha MP Vijay Laxmi Sadho's tenure ends this June and Congress with only 57 seats in the state assembly can send only one person to the Upper House while ruling BJP will send three. "It is doubtful that Vijay Laxmi Sadho will be repeated when the party's stalwart leaders are waiting in the wings," a senior state Congress leader said.
"Even though she has had just one tenure, it is highly improbable she will be given a second tenure."
There are other names also doing the rounds for nomination to Rajya Sabha on that one seat, including state Congress chief Arun Yadav, senior party leader and four times Rajya Sabha MP Suresh Pachauri, national Mahila Congress president Shobha Oza, former MP from Mandsaur seat Meenakshi Natarajan and senior Supreme Court advocate Vivek Tankha, who has represented the Congress party in court in the Vyapam scam case.
Earlier this month, Arun Yadav was in New Delhi for an exclusive meeting with AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi. A senior state Congress office-bearer said that while Rahul Gandhi was very content with Yadav's work in Madhya Pradesh and gave him a free hand to deal with party affairs in the state, he would still prefer to send a former Union minister like Sibal or Ramesh to the Rajya Sabha.
Arun Yadav was elected twice to the Lok Sabha from Khargone seat and in 2011 was appointed Union minister of state for heavy industries and later for agriculture and food processing. "But he would still be considered a young and inexperienced face when the party needs the presence of heavy-weights in Parliament," the senior state Congress leader added.
Suresh Pachauri is a heavy-weight and considered close to the high-command. But he has already had four terms in the upper house from 1984 to 2008. It seems Shobha Oza and Meenakshi Natarajan, both women Congress leaders from the state will have to wait for their turn. If anyone comes close to being considered in place of Sibal, it would be former advocate general of the state Vivek Tankha, who last year claimed Vyapam MPPEB is the biggest cover-up operation. Tankha represented the Congress party and worked on the Vyapam case against the BJP state government in the law courts in New Delhi.